


Spill It

by thewriter



Category: Demi Lovato (Musician)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2019-01-10 04:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12291066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewriter/pseuds/thewriter
Summary: Demi negotiates her complicated feelings for Nick, wondering, if he could possibly feel the same way.





	1. Off My Chest

Demi Lovato was restless. She hadn't been this restless since before treatment when she binge wrote songs all night, but in this case, the circumstances were different.

She was conflicted because (once again) she was falling in love with her best friend.

Been there, done that, she thought as she paced around her desk in her bedroom, got the T-shirt. Got the T-shirt a long time ago.

She wasn't quite sure when it happened maybe it was between working together and the Future Now tour the year before. Maybe it was before that… She didn't know.

Lyrics bounced around in her mind and she scribbled them down in her phone as fast as she could think of them. How good Nick looked on a particular occasion, how anything more than friendship with her would pretty much scare him shitless.

She had to smile at that.

She hummed a sultry melody under her breath, into her phone. She had so many lyrics in her phone right now the notepad on her on the screen was beginning to look like chicken scratch, but that was normal for her particularly when she came up with lyrics on the fly. The lyrics seem to fall into two categories: waiting for Nick to make a move, and ruining their friendship.

Two categories, two different songs which she would pretty much guard with her life. They wouldn't be the first ones she showed Nick from this upcoming album.

"Well I guess I'm spilling my guts to everyone tomorrow." She murmured when she finally turned off her phone. "They're going to love this, everyone's going to have a field day!"

 

Later that afternoon the following day Demi was back in the studio. She was ready to show everyone her ideas and flush out the songs she had written the night before.

She went into her brainstorming session tentatively. Usually having co-writers meant spilling your deepest darkest secrets to a mess of people, but usually these were people she trusted and would give her honest feedback. She was already ready for the first question one of her writers threw at her.

"So… Does Nick, uh, know about the songs? That you feel this way?"

"God no!" Demi exclaimed, "I guess I would have to tell him… Show him if they made the album, and even if they didn't… Well." She flushed, biting her lip.

"It ruins the friendship." One of the writers, Tony, cut in, "hey, why not just call the song that, "Ruin the Friendship".

Demi chewed on her thumbnail. Now she was getting really nervous.


	2. Hidden Messages

Several weeks later, Demi was in the recording booth recording the songs she had written about Nick. She even had a little "surprise" for everyone that only her writers knew about.

Well, if I'm going to spill my guts I might as well do it thoroughly. She thought as she adjusted the headphones over her ears.

"Ready Demi?" The producer asked.

Demi gave a thumbs up and the producer began to play "Ruin the Friendship" through her headphones.

It felt good to really say what was on her mind about Nick, the things she had longed to say for the past several months. She licked her lips as she sang, she still felt nervous even though there was only one other person in the studio.

When she got the bridge, Demi shifted a little closer to the microphone and cupped her hand around the headphones.

"No I can't keep denying every moment I think of you…" She chuckled at the end of the phrase. Maybe they would get it, maybe they wouldn't. Knowing her fans however…

The producer cut her off.

"Did you put in there what I think you did?" He asked through the speaker that went directly into the booth.

Demi giggled.

"Maybe?"

"Maybe there's stuff in the songs I don't want to know about." The producer replied chuckling. "Scratch that-I know there's stuff in these songs I don't want to know about!"

Demi laughed again. Speaking her mind could sometimes get her in trouble, but at the moment she didn't really care. At the moment the only response she cared about to her songs was Nick's.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is so short. I have more coming later this week. The next couple of chapters should be slightly longer.


	3. Time to Make a Move

Demi sat at a table in the studio as she prepared to write another song about Nick. Initially it was all the lyrics that hadn't really fit into "Ruin the Friendship" but everything in this song was different, softer, and deeper but with similar meaning and ideas.

"Less sexy." One of the writers noted.

"Not exactly the words I would use," Demi replied, "but yeah."

It was another writing session in which Demi prepared to spill her guts and found herself talking about the Future Now tour she had done with Nick the year before.

There was one thing she remembered that seem to stick in her mind more than anything else. Singing Nick's song "Close" every night she saw something, felt something she had never saw or felt before. She didn't want to compare it to anything else she had previously had with anyone else because it wasn't like what she had with anyone else. This was Nick and they seem to fit together, fit together seamlessly.

She could remember every detail of standing on the catwalk every night and looking into his eyes and singing the sexy, flirtatious lyrics back to him. It didn't seem to bother him, in fact she remembered his smile every now and then, it was a genuine smile, but there was something more behind his eyes something he never quite let her see.

Demi wrote about that tension that seemed to pop up between them every time they sang together, every time he hugged her… Something she couldn't quite define.

… Or maybe he secretly wanted to grab her ass. (She didn't write that though.)

She didn't want to pressure him in any way to be so blunt to scare him off, that was the last thing she wanted to do, but she was waiting for him to make a move; whatever that was.

The lyrics were relatively simple because they were her honest thoughts. They came out of the questions the writers threw at her.

When Demi finally was finished writing and recording the song she called "Only Forever". The producer through another question at her.

"No big secret who these songs are about, so you going to show him?"

Demi shrugged, brushing her dark hair out of her face.

"Maybe." She murmured coyly. "I don't know yet."

It was like the songs were burning a hole in her pocket. They sat on her laptop for weeks even after the tracks had been mastered.

"Fuck it!" Demi muttered one afternoon when she couldn't stand it anymore. She threw the song files into an email and sent it to Nick.

 

I'm pretty nervous about releasing these songs, they're pretty personal. Let me know what you think.

D

 

Her fingers were shaking when she finally hit send.

To her surprise, Nick replied a few hours later. His message just a short as hers had been.

 

That's impressive. I've written a few too (about you, that is). Maybe we can meet up and talk about it?

Nick

 

Then she texted him.

 

Got your email. Where do you want to meet? Studio City Starbucks? D

 

Nick replied moments later.

 

Sure. Around 1 I think, I can catch you after this meeting I got after lunch. NJ

 

Demi grinned.

 

See you then!


	4. The Space in Between Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to end this story here, even though I wanted it to be longer. But I think I have a few more ideas. I'm hoping these next few chapters will be longer and have more dialogue between Nick and Demi as they figure out where their friendship goes after Demi releases her songs.

Demi nervously approached the Starbucks where she and Nick had agreed to meet. She found Nick checking his phone in a back table of the coffee shop.

"Hey Jonas," she greeted, what so urgent you had to skip lunch for me?"

Nick looked up and smiled at her, a smile now that did funny things to her stomach.

"You know I'd skip anything for you Demi."

She pulled out the chair across from him to sit down.

"Well thanks. Oh shit! I completely forgot about the coffee!" Demi laughed self-consciously. "I guess I have a lot on my mind."

"I ordered already." Nick replied, and gestured to the two cups of coffee on the table. "I think I got your order right."

Demi picked up the cup closest to her and after blowing on it for several minutes she took a sip.

Then looking at Nick she shrugged.

"Close enough."

Demi smirked when she heard Nick singing his song "Close" under his breath. She rolled her eyes.

Then Nick was all serious again.

"So what's on your mind?"

Besides you? She wanted to say, but didn't.

"Well the songs… I wanted to know what you thought."

Nick nodded.

"They're good, really good. The entire album is going to a solid piece of work."

This wasn't exactly the answer Demi wanted, but she wasn't quite sure how to bring up the subject she wanted to discuss with Nick.

"But there about you!" She blurted, "I guess the one thing that makes me really nervous is how the fans are going to react to that." Demi laughed nervously, "They're going to know it's about you."

"Yeah?" Nick asked.

"Yeah." Demi replied flatly.

"What's wrong with that?" He murmured.

"The media is going to be all over it! If they're not already! And--"

Chuckling, Nick placed his hands over hers.

"Are you worried about how I'm going to react or how the fans and the media are going to react?" He asked softly.

Demi was annoyed she found herself blushing.

"Both I guess," Demi ran her hands through her hair, "I don't know!"

"How do you think I'm going to react." Nick asked. Demi was annoyed he was being so calm.

"I don't know. Maybe freaked out and never talk to me again."

"Well I'm not." Nick replied. "I appreciate your honesty, I guess that's one of the things I like about you."

Finally Demi looked up at Nick and swallowed, unsure what to say next.

"Remember when we were talking about how hard it was to put everything we were feeling words and I said I just made the guitar bleed?"

"You said you never cried, I still don't believe it." Demi replied, stoically.

"I guess that's one of things I've learned," Nick mused, "to be vulnerable, to be more transparent."

"Yeah…" Demi murmured breathlessly.

"A lot of the songs I've written in the past few months, well, some of them have been about you." Nick smirked, "maybe a few the fans don't know about."

"Really?"

Nick nodded, smiling slightly.

"I sent you one of them, one that is probably going to go on my new album. That song from Last Year Was Complicated, you think most of the songs are about my ex," Demi made a face, "you kind of inspired "The Difference" I wouldn't describe any of the girls I've dated like that."

"So we're good?" Demi asked.

"Absolutely!" Nick replied, "Why not?"

"I just thought both of us having feelings for each other would make our friendship weird." Demi murmured.

"I'm not taking it off the table yet, but we're both single, let's just see where things go. Maybe we can come back to it."

"I hope so." Demi murmured.

Demi felt strangely comforted when Nick hugged her goodbye. It was as if he had answered all her questions; and maybe a few she hadn't asked. At least it was out there if either from ever wanted to pursue it and that excited and terrified her all at the same time.


	5. Words Unsaid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Almost called this chapter "told you I made dinner plans" but decided it didn't really fit the tone of the chapter.

Several months had passed since Demi had finished her album. After a busy week of promotion she was out to dinner with John Taylor and Nick in New York; Nick, having come down from Montréal where he was shooting a movie.

Demi, for her part was getting over a cold or something of that nature which had made her voice sound like crap and had her cancel a recent performance. Nick had filled in for her, for which she was grateful.

They all sat down in the back of the restaurant, hoping not to draw any more attention than necessary, but there was always someone with a phone, and a picture that went up on the Internet. She was used in to it by now.

She and Nick had agreed to keep a low profile since the release of her album because "Ruin the Friendship" with getting a fair amount of buzz from the media and she didn't want to add any more speculation to the already flying rumors. The fans weren't exactly helping and were like an ever present cheering peanut gallery.

Not helping guys. Demi thought, but she never said anything. Any denial one way or the other would cause more rumors.

Demi was grateful when Nick ordered her dinner without batting an eye, since she had little voice to speak of and wanted to conserve what she did have.

"Thanks." She whispered. Once the waiter had turned their back.

Nick gave her sideways smile.

"Anytime." He replied.

"You know I got the Today Show tomorrow, if I can get through that and my voice doesn't die I think I'm good."

"You'll be fine." John Taylor assured her. "I'm positive!"

A long stretch of silence passed between them all before John spoke again.

"So…" John spoke up, he seemed to be choosing his words carefully. "Anything going on between you two I need to know about?" He raised his eyebrows as if to punctuate his statement.

"No!" Demi replied, a little too quickly to sound convincing.

Then clearing her throat she rephrased.

"I think you've been listening to the fan's gossip too much John. I mean, it's just a song."

"Right." John replied mildly. 

Nick raised his eyebrows in return and smirked, which only caused John to give him another look. Demi watched this with mild interest, wondering what was going on in Nick's head, but she sure as hell wasn't going to ask him (at least not right now.)

It seemed other than ordering her dinner she and Nick had been low-key and they had only talked about business and what the other was doing for work they hadn't touched on anything personal except for Demi's health.

They left the restaurant without much comment, Nick reaching to take Demi's coat and helped her into it. As they headed for their respective cars still making small talk.

Nick hugged her, maybe a little longer than necessary, but Demi didn't care, she loved Nick's hugs. A lyric from "Only Forever" popped into her head because it was certainly true now.

You can't deny the tension between us. She thought, but neither of them had yet to elaborate on that.

Then John hugged her, the way people hugged her when they wanted to make sure she was doing okay, but then as he pulled away he whispered in her ear.

"Maybe you're not as good a liar as you think you are."

Then he walked away, putting his arm around Nick's shoulders and Demi stood watching them before she remembered she was still standing in the parking lot. Sighing, she walked back towards the restaurant to call the valet.


	6. Don't Say

Almost a month had passed since the release of Demi's album. While the buzz about "Ruin the Friendship" had died down somewhat it was still simmering in the back of everyone's subconscious--including Demi's.

At the moment, Demi was preparing for her Halloween party. This year, she was going as famous Latina singer Selena, or at least it was somewhat Selena inspired, sleek and sultry, which fit Demi to a tee. She knew her stylist could come up with something without batting an eye, and Halloween was particularly fun because she could do practically anything. Demi loved Halloween!

Demi threw together the guest list; mostly friends and colleagues from all over the industry and even a few of her non-famous friends she kept close.

A few days before she texted Nick. She didn't think he would be available, but she figured it was worth a shot.

Hey, she texted, can I convince you to come to my party?

Nick texted back a short time later.

Probably not-the dressing up part I mean. Nick replied, don't know if I can make it; if I'll be back in LA in time.

Demi sent him a sad face emoji.

Sorry, Nick replied, then sent back a second sad face emoji.

A few seconds later he sent her another text.

Besides… Who knows what would happen between us if I came over…"

Demi pursed her lips.

What the hell is that supposed to mean? She texted.

Hey, Dem, sorry, I'm getting called to set, we can talk about it later… I promise.

Demi turned off her phone feeling oddly dissatisfied. It was unlike Nick to blow her off, work or no work, she had a feeling there was more he had to say he just wasn't saying it. Maybe the fact that they had become more vulnerable and transparent in their writing had backfired on them both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this chapter is short, I'll finish this up in the last chapter; there will be some form of resolution.


	7. If I Come Over

It was almost midnight when Demi returned home on Halloween. She hadn't been trick-or-treating, but rather out partying with friends; this time dressed up as a "sexy cop" something that included leather and handcuffs.

She was just getting undressed when something on the laptop in her bedroom "binged. Turning she saw her laptop light up with a chat window, and a few seconds later she saw Nick's smiling face, or at least he was until he saw how she was dressed.

"Am I interrupting anything?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No." Demi replied, "I'd tell you if you were, and tell you to fuck off."

Nick laughed.

"It's hard to tell…" Nick mused, with a slight smirk, "seeing as you wore a body suit very similar to that every night of the Future Now tour."

"What's that supposed to mean!" Demi exclaimed as she plopped down in the desk chair in front of the laptop.

"I don't know… I'm just saying…"

"Oh, so I was trying to turn people on every night during the tour was I?" She asked, smirking, raising an eyebrow. "That is what you were implying, was it not?"

"Well, it's not that hard…" Nick murmured.

"Uh huh, speak for yourself." Demi smirked again. She enjoyed messing with Nick.

"Well, what man wouldn't be attracted to you Demi." Nick murmured, his tone soft.

"Are you?" Demi shot back.

"Well, I wouldn't be human if I wasn't." Nick responded calmly.

Demi smirked and began doing a little dance in front of the computer screen. "If my body had a say… Touch… Make love… Taste it..." She sang under her breath. 

On the screen she saw Nick squirm, but he regained his composure quickly.

"What are you doing?" Nick asked shaking his head.

Demi shrugged and sat back down in the chair.

"Maybe we can go dirty dancing sometime." Demi murmured in a low voice.

Nick raised his eyebrows again.

"What happened to not ruining our friendship?" Nick asked.

"Sometimes I just want to say "fuck it" Demi replied.

"See that's why I don't want to come over." Nick responded, "if I come over, I can't say what would or wouldn't happen between us."

Demi sighed.

In camera, Nick shifted. Behind him Demi could see part of a hotel room, he was obviously still in Canada.

"… Well there's always Joe's wedding." Nick let phrase hang in the air between them. "At least we'll have witnesses and maybe I won't have to third wheel "Jophie" anymore without a good excuse." He put Joe and Sophie's nickname and air quotes. (Ever since the engagement the nickname had stuck, not that Joe and his fiancée minded.)

"Yeah…" Demi responded softly. "So you're saying I should kinda be your date?"

"Maybe."

The sentence hung in the air between them again. Demi saw Nick lick his lips as his eyes darted down towards her breasts. She licked her lips in response to the luck he knew he was unintentionally giving her.

"Well let me know about the save the date." Demi murmured.

"Yeah," Nick ran a hand through his short dark hair, "I will. Even if Joe doesn't send you an invitation himself… I guess you can always come with me."

"Good." Demi murmured. She yawned. "I guess I better change… Unless you want to watch…" She raised her eyebrows."

Nick laughed.

"Don't tempt me." Was all he said, "Night Demi." The chat clicked off.

Demi peeled off her costume in silence. She didn't know when she would see Nick again, they were both very busy and she had a tour coming up. Maybe Joe's wedding would bring them together. She found herself smiling when she finally climbed into bed, calling for her dogs she pulled the covers up on her chin as Batman and Cinderella settled down beside her. By the time she fell asleep visions of her and Nick dancing at Joe's wedding were already visible in her mind's eye.


End file.
